Heavens above

Cosy up in a little cabin for two and stargaze from the bed – there is a circular window looking up to the heavens in each of the Carré d'Etoiles wooden cubes. Various campsites across France feature them, and many also have a telescope for guests to use.• There are several campsites with the cabins across France, carre-detoiles.com

Chile nights

Chile's Atacama desert is famous for more than the miners. It has the world's largest telescope, the brilliantly named European Extremely Large Telescope, in the Cerro Armazones area, and though it won't be completed till 2018, astrotourism is growing fast in the region. The Elqui Domos is a camp of seven geodesic tents, which have two storeys and a detachable roof. Astronomic tours and night-time horse rides are available at the camp.• From £75 per night, elquidomos.cl

Heavy showers

Watch the August Perseids meteor shower in the Jordanian desert on a seven-day trip that includes two days where the focus is the night sky. On day five (after visiting Amman, Madaba, Jerash and Petra) you'll be at Wadi Rum to witness the celestial show, where at its peak there are 60 meteors per hour.• 6-13 August, £828 excluding flights, On The Go Tours (onthego.com)

Dark up north

Galloway forest park, two hours from Glasgow, is Britain's only designated Dark Sky Park, awarded the status a year ago. Visit on 13 December to witness the Geminids meteor shower, and there's a total lunar eclipse on 21 December.•gallowayforestpark.com has links to the best places to set up telescopes

There are two Draculas – Bram Stoker's lawyer-nibbling Count, and the real one, Vlad III, the arch impaler. Garlic at the ready, Tanya Gold heads to Bucharest and beyond to track them both down this Halloween

Join the bloodbath at Brighton's zombie walk or get spooked on a ghost hunt in York, Europe's most haunted city. Prepare for your spine to tingle with Gemma Bowes' picks of spooky events across Britain